How To Fake an Income Screenshot in Under 5 Mins

I have been a webmaster for over a decade, and sometimes I take things for granted. One of those things is how easy things are to fake.

Someone told me the other day about a product they bought. Their main trigger was a sales page screen shot. When I told them it could be faked in minutes I was given a look of disbelief. This is so easy, I thought I should show you so you can be a little more skeptical when you are spending your hard earned cash.

In this example I will use PayPal. You can try this with any site.

Step 1 – Sign in.


Sign in to your paypal account and wait for the balance screen to appear.

Step 2 – Save An Archive

Save as Source in Safari

I do this using Safari, when the save as dialog comes up I choose “save as source”. This saves a local copy of the page on my hard drive while still calling the images from paypal.

Step 3 – Find and Replace

Open your newly saved HTML document with notepad or another text editor. Using the replace function find your existing balance and replace it with your desired fake balance.

Step 4 – Open in Browser

Voila! I am now rich enough to sell you a $47 ebook that tells you to buy adwords.

It's easy for people to fake you out!

Think this can’t be faked on video?? Think again!

All someone needs to do is use tabbed browsing, have the paypal login screen in one tab and the fake screen in the other. When they click login they can use a key command to change tabs. Even when the video shows you the address bar, some creative editing is all that’s required. Paste the url of your real balance screen over the local address and don’t press enter. This stuff is basic for the scam artists out there.

Why Am I Showing You This??

Because I am tired of seeing people get ripped off. This is no secret, it’s easy for anyone with limited knowledge to figure this out. Thousands of people already use fake screenshots to sell you stuff. All I want is for you to be aware this stuff is easy to fake and NEVER make a decision or be influenced to buy based on a screenshot!

Be aware and be skeptical. :)

  • Thanks for posting this brother.

    on a side note:

    Is it only me... or does this page keep moving around because the image size keeps rotating in the slider. I cant keep the page still...

  • This is a great share!
    I know now why they claim to make $1000 a day but sell their junk e-book for $7..

    Santacruz

  • hahhhaha
    that's so true, i like the idea of the post :)))

  • Hey brad
    Just came to this place from a software of yours.
    I love the logo, the way it describes how to pronounce your name.
    It rhymes with boss. :)

  • Debbie

    Thank you for this. I knew that almost 90% of items displaying their PayPal income was fake just did not know exactly how they were doing it.
    Debbie M
    Themes In Design
    themesindesign.com

  • Lorne

    I once bought a Clickbank product who's sole purpose was to fake testimonials for sales pages. And the merchant sent me an angry email when I asked for a refund because it wasn't a real product. That's when I began to be aware...

  • Bex

    Thanks for the info on this. I knew it was relatively easy to fake screenshots of earnings, I just didn't realise it was this easy. Never seen a video proof of earnings before though but, at least now I know to not always trust that either.

  • KantosKan

    I automatically try to bypass the screen-shot portion of all videos.I will not have the same results as someone with a well know name or more knowledgeable at marketing.What they made really is not relevant to my decision making process.I say that because I may not be willing to spend as much on advertising or a million other factors that will influence my income.These decisions that I will make in my business will determine my income . All you can do is buy into solid products and work them well.

  • angelawills

    Very interesting and I also had no idea it was THAT easy. I thought it was done with screenshots and whiting stuff out which seemed a little (but not a whole lot) more complicated.

    Sad. That's why I really usually don't buy anything from random strangers. I like to get to know a business online before I buy from them. It's usually pretty easy to spot people who are just in it for the cash - they don't do posts like this one :)

  • Hi Brad, this post was recommended to me by Andy of powerblogtactics when he mentioned you on my blog.

    I'm really glad he did as well. I always thought it was some photoshop expert doing the fake screen shots but what an eye opener you've posted here. With it being so easy to trick people is it any wonder why so many are trying it on.

    I'll be back for more very soon Brad,
    R&R Barry

  • Hey Brad,

    Had to retweet this one! The sad thing is, someone somewhere is using this as a tutorial :(

  • You can also do the same thing with a line of javascript in your browser. I explain here - http://www.yourinternets.com/j...

  • Hi Brad!

    Yup there is a java script technique too you can edit right on the page I never go by screenshots or video "proof"
    Instead I research the person see if others have bought their product what do they say about it etc.

    Great post as usual
    Cheers man
    -WD

  • man you're really raking it in Brad!! is all that from your gigs on fiverr?

  • Thanks for sharing this Brad.

    The real people who lose are the ones buying the product, it makes barrier for entry on legit products a lot hard on level 1.

    Question - how can you give prove and have people know it is real. I tried last year a fellow Warrior who is a lawyer that offered the service - http://warriorverified.com/ver.... This way a lawyer looks at it,I liked the idea.

    Cheers,
    Mukul

  • browser

    Great revelation! With just that and some 30+ friends each to give a solid product testimonial anyone can get rich in a New York minute! Wow!

  • Hi Brad, I'm glad you showed us this tutorial about fake earning claims.
    From now on, I will see new product presentations with exaggerated claims under a new point of view :)
    Now I'm ready to jot down my "fake claims blacklist".
    I saw too much times newbie claiming to have made millions of dollars.
    And it's very strange they all resale their *secret plans" for a few dollars when they earned so much.

    Thanks a lot and see you soon.
    Alessandro Zamboni

  • Thanks for your heads-up. I have long suspected that some of the representations were untrue. Having been on the tax prep side of things, these fraudsters should be aware that the IRS often watches for such claims and has been known to contact people about where this income was shown on their tax forms (USA ony of course). So it is patently unwise to make such false and exaggerated claims. No only do they steal from customers but that may be the least of their problems.

    Great Post. Thanks for your candor.

  • Safuan

    Hi Brad, thanks for highlighting this. Quite difficult this days to distinguish which digital product is genuine.

  • Great information Brad. I knew it went on but did not realise just how easy it is to do.

  • Holly Cotter

    I knew people could fake those screenshots, I just never knew how EASY it is to do... till now. Thanks for exposing the myth Brad!

  • There are so many ways out there to scam people especially newbies. The real reason is not only bcoz of this fake screen shot, they always follow with fast money making program such as "3 Steps to Making Money Online Overnight"-which is NOT REAL!!! Please beware newbie out there go find yourself a good, well known, most trusted and reliable Mentor's with proven system and not promise you one night millionaire or even 30 days. I think Brad Gosse one of those.

  • Brittanytlynch

    Wow this is going to be really useful for my next big clickbank launch! Thanks Brad

    Haha - Joking! Good Post

    Cheers

    Brittany

  • jai

    why dont you add some more zeroooooos :D

  • Wow! I knew I never trusted screenshots for a reason! Found this via Warrior Forum. Thanks for the tip!

  • Rich Hamilton

    Time to transfer money to the bank!

  • Garys221

    This is a little advertised fact that has been making the rounds for a couple of years and its always good when someone with some influence brings it to the forefront.

    Actually, if you do a little scouting around YouTube there are a couple of videos that show you how to do this very thing in real time and keep all of the URLs and stuff straight so that even a video can be fudged to make it look like its real.

    Caveat Emptor!

    gary

  • I believe $4Trillion puts you at the top of the Forbes 400. Good Job!
    Where do I buy your program?
    :)

  • Spencer

    I'm very careful who I buy from these days. It would be nice to put these scammers out of business. Thanks for the post.

    Spencer

  • Spaceman_seven

    cheers now to fake a few screen shots and get on over to the wso forum!

  • Raj

    nothing new here this has been going on for years. Kind of the reason why on Flippa sites with Video of people actually logging in to paypal, adsense accounts sell higher than ones with screenshots

  • Awesomely done. Thank you!

blog comments powered by Disqus